The best of both world? ahh maybe
From someone outside of NY the idea being close to the Northern most parts of Manhattan is exciting, until you realize getting to Manhattan's best spots is an epic journey.
Riverdale itself is a rare gem for the BX. Manhattan College is on the edge of Riverdale, so some parts closer to Kings Bridge are not as safe. The Manhattan College area overall is very safe, quiet and well maintained.
While the school just built a new housing building, many students commute or live off campus. If you decide to live off campus like I did, there are many options.
The social aspect of Manhattan is hit or miss. Since there are so many commuters, Friday-Sunday is dead on campus. Parties are mostly off campus or held at a local watering hole. MC has NCAA D1 teams and they are somewhat known for their mens basketball and baseball teams. Unfortunately both teams sucked while I was there. If you go to MC you most likely will find yourself at An Beal Bocht Cafe, Riverdale City Grill, Fenwick's, or Dorney's. Most of these bars are Irish bars. My favorite was Gleeson's. Great happy hour, good food, and tons of HD TVs.
MC is really only known for their engineering department. Every other department isn't ranked. MC really pushes for a well balanced liberal arts education. With that said, most majors will have to take a lot of bs classes.
The teachers are actually really great. I really enjoyed all of my religion classes (I hate religion) and most of my liberal learning classes. The brothers I had were really cool and were very passionate about what they taught. Make sure to use rate my professor website to find the best teachers. I only had one terrible teacher: Jennifer Edwards. BEWARE lol
Overall the school fosters a great sense of community but really lacks a decent intern/job pipeline. If you want to find a good job or internship, you will have to network on your own.
The food is terrible. Most colleges don't have amazing food, but is by far the worst college food I have ever consumed. We all used to joke about how they put laxatives in the food.
Overall MC is a good small school. If your looking for the typical college experience look else where. This school is defiantly not your big party state school. Imagine going to a large high school. To me Manhattan College was the place kids went to if they couldn't get into Fordham, Columbia, NYU, or good state schools. read more